The routes are marked by checkpoints within a freely navigable area. The player no longer completed race after race, but had to acquire his qualification for a higher racing class every now and then through special tasks (driving through all checkpoints in a given time, finding or destroying certain objects, etc.). The second part of the game contained so-called challenges, which meant a major innovation. The player can use the money to upgrade his car and pay for repairs. He starts at rank 99 and has to work his way up to rank 1. The player gets to know the game primarily through a career mode. Furthermore, by driving over boxes or tons of extras, the player can collect extras that have a positive or negative influence on the environment, the vehicle, the living beings or the opponents. Particularly spectacular driving maneuvers or collisions are also rewarded.
The game principle provides that the player rams other drivers or runs over living beings in order to top up his expiring time account.
This includes mostly people, but also some animals such as dogs and deer. However, there are still alternatives: On the one hand, the game can be won by crashing enemy cars and, on the other hand, by running over all living beings in the game. As in a traditional racing game, in Carmageddon there is the possibility of winning the race by completing checkpoints or laps before the time runs out.